Wall insulation in Bearwood
Nearly every wall here has a cavity, so the useful question is what is in it already and whether a second lot of material helps or hinders.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Almost nothing here predates the war, so the question is rarely whether you have a cavity. It is whether that cavity is already part full of board from the day it was built, and what a second lot of material would actually do in the gap that is left.
The calls are usually one of two. A late seventies house that feels cold on the north side and has never had anything done to the walls. Or a newer one where somebody has knocked on the door offering a fill, and the owner wants a second opinion before letting anybody drill it.
We give that opinion by looking rather than guessing. One small hole in a mortar joint, a borescope through it, moisture readings on the inside face, and a walk round the outside. Then a free written itemised quote, with the survey, the system, the junctions and the making good on separate lines, or a straight recommendation to spend the money elsewhere.
The work
What is in the gap already, and what should join it
Partial fill, and why it matters. Newer houses were often built with rigid board clipped to the inner leaf and a clear residual cavity left in front of it. That gap is there to stop water crossing, and blowing it full changes how the wall handles driven rain. A borescope shows the board, the width of what is left and the state of the wall ties, and that one look is the difference between a sensible job and an expensive mistake.
Cavity wall insulation where it is right. An empty cavity that is clear, dry and wide enough gets filled from outside through drilled holes, made good in matching mortar. Bonded polystyrene bead flows into the awkward corners and stays where it is put; blown mineral wool is the older answer and still fine on a sheltered wall. A normal house is a day.
The 1960s and 1970s stock. Cavities of that age are usually empty and usually worth filling, but they can be narrow and they often carry mortar droppings on the ties, which bridge water across. Any of that shows on the scope. Where it is bad the honest answer is to clean or leave, not to fill and hope.
Internal wall insulation. IWI is the fallback where a cavity cannot be used, and the route of choice on any solid wall: insulated plasterboard bonded on, or batten and stud with mineral wool or PIR between, then boarded and skimmed. Celotex and Kingspan give more per millimetre and aerogel board suits a room with none to spare. Reveals, threshold, floor junction and joist ends all get wrapped, because that is where the heat loss actually is.
External wall insulation. EWI is board on the outside face with a render carrier and a thin coat over it. It wraps the building in one go, deals with the thermal bridge at eaves and corners, and leaves the rooms their size. It also thickens every reveal and pushes the sills, the meter box and the rainwater goods outwards, so it is a bigger piece of work than it looks.
Ventilation, damp and failed fill. Old fill settles, and a slumped cavity leaves a cold band at the head of the wall; a wet cavity carries penetrating damp inside and black mould with it. Both come off the borescope, and extraction comes first. Whatever goes on, the ventilation has to keep up: trickle vents, a real extract fan, and any air brick that has been blocked up. Insulating moves the dew point and takes the draughts away, so a taped vapour control layer and breathable materials keep interstitial condensation out of the build up.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting your work out to somebody you have never met. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: the survey and any borescope check, the system and its thickness, making good around windows and doors, ventilation works, and disposal on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Insulating the inside of a wall is not development and needs no application, which Planning Portal guidance on insulation confirms, and there is no conservation area and almost nothing listed on this side of the parish, so the outside face is more open here than in most of the towns nearby; Planning Portal guidance on external walls covers what applies. It is still notifiable work: regulation 23 means a renovated thermal element has to reach the Part L standard in Approved Document L, and building control sign off the U value and the ventilation together.
Cost
What decides the price of a wall insulation job
No rate per square metre, because the wall area is the easy part; what happens at every window, door and floor junction is not.
Getting to it. A 1970s terrace with a shared drive, a detached house on a corner plot and a bungalow with low eaves are three different jobs before a hole is drilled. Cavity fill is drilled from outside and a bungalow comes off a tower where a three storey gable wants a scaffold. Internal lining is worked room by room from inside, so it is your rooms rather than a platform that gets disrupted. The work at height rules still set the platform.
Which wall you actually have. A cavity that is clear and dry can be filled in a day. A solid wall cannot be filled at all, and has to be lined inside or insulated outside, which is a different job at a different price. A borescope through one drilled hole settles it, and no honest quote is written before that.
The junctions, not the field of the wall. Reveals at windows and doors, the floor junction, the eaves and any party wall are where heat escapes and where condensation shows up if the detailing is wrong. That work is slow, it is most of the labour, and it is the first thing a cheap quote leaves out.
Comparing quotes? Ask whether the wall has actually been checked with a borescope or just assumed, what system and what thickness is specified, how the reveals and floor junction are being detailed, whether ventilation is being addressed, and who makes good the plaster and decoration afterwards. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
If damp has appeared
Damp or mould after a wall was insulated
Ring rather than use the form. Damp patches or black mould appearing on an outside wall after cavity fill or internal lining usually means water is tracking across the cavity, or warm air is reaching a cold surface at a junction. We look before we take anything out, because the fix depends on which of those it is. It is four miles from us, so a BH11 address is usually looked at within a day or two. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Why a newer house is not automatically a fill
The building stock here is mostly post-war and a good third of it went up in the 1980s or later. That sounds like good news for cavity work and often it is, but it also means a lot of these walls were insulated at the point they were built. Rigid board fixed to the inner leaf, a clear gap in front of it, and a wall that is already doing a fair share of its job. Blowing that residual gap full is not obviously an improvement, and on an elevation that takes the weather it can be the opposite.
That is the whole argument for drilling before quoting. If the scope shows board and a decent clear gap, we will normally tell you the walls are not where your money belongs. If it shows an empty cavity of proper width, clean and dry, it is one of the most straightforward improvements there is. Either way you get told which, in writing, and nobody sells you a system on the doorstep on the strength of the year the house was built.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Bearwood, Kinson Common, the Magna Road side and the BH11 streets around them, with Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council for planning and building control. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.
Questions
Bearwood questions we get asked
How do I know if my walls were insulated when they were built?
The borescope shows it straight away: board clipped to the inner leaf with a clear gap in front. Deeds and brochures rarely say, and the year alone proves nothing.
A firm cold called offering to insulate our walls. Worth taking up?
Not before somebody drills a hole and looks inside. A wall that already holds board, or one that is wet or narrow, is a wall to leave exactly as it is.
What are wall ties and why do you look at them?
They tie the two leaves together across the cavity. Mortar sitting on them carries water across, and rusted ones are a repair job in their own right rather than something to bury.
What would you put into an empty cavity on this stock?
Bead on anything taking weather, because it flows into corners and holds position. Blown mineral wool where the elevation is sheltered, which is cheaper to install and perfectly sound.
Will filling the cavity stop the north wall feeling cold?
It helps, but the cold you feel in a corner is often a thermal bridge at a reveal or a floor junction rather than the middle of the wall, and that needs detailing rather than filling.
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Have the wall checked before anybody drills it
Thomas comes out, scopes the cavity, tells you what is already in there and prices the honest answer in writing. The visit and the quote are free.